Anybody know any good shops or private mechanics who perform good, honest work in my neck of the woods (near Raleigh or Durham)? Haven't been blown away by the Leith places I've taken it to. Any help/recommendations would be appreciated. I think I need some suspension work. I'm willing to do a bit of a drive, if necessary.

(I already posted this elsewhere, but realized I had inadvertently jacked someone else's thread...)

 

Mike, too bad you don't live a little bit further north. I would tell you to come over and we would do the job ourselves, save you a ton of money. But, I don't think you are willing to drive about 90 minutes beyond Richmond, VA to stop by my place to get the work done. That way you can get your hands involved and you can make sure that everything was done to your standards.

As for shops in your area, wish I could be of more help. I am not familiar with any shops down in your neck of the woods. Your best bet would be to find a place like a performance shop and ask them who they would take their car too if they had a Jag. You might find that one good mechanic.

 

Thermo, you just spoke my language. I'd absolutely be willing to do that drive. I'm getting "creaking" from the rear-end when I go over bumps, which a buddy of mine thinks is related to bushings wearing out. He suggests I replace them with polyurethane when I do the work. To the best of my knowledge my cat--about 50k miles right now--needs a complete suspension refresh (I KNOW it needs front shocks, figured I'd do a full set). So right now, my plan is to do shocks all the way around, H&R lowering springs, change the bushings, and... anything else I would need to do/should do while doing suspension work? Note: I know very, very little about this, and have no tools, so would happily pay you for your time. How long would it take "us"? Also, any "upgrades" you would suggest? What parts should I get? I would like to replace the stock shocks with performance parts (still streetable, though), and had thought about a larger diameter sway bar, etc. Anyway, this is very exciting for me, and I was planning on getting this done sometime over the next 6 weeks or so. Please let me know about the above when you get a chance. Thanks!

 

Mike, to do the shocks all the way around, that would probably be an afternoon. Not a tough job, but not something you just walk up to and can do at a drop of a hat.

As for what your noise is, I could be venturing to guess that you have a bushing that is going too. What you can do to help eliminate things is to get under the car and spray the sway bar bushings with some WD-40 and see if your noise goes away. If it does, then you simply need some new sway bar bushings. You can next do say the bushings for the shocks. After that, say all the linkages associated with the rear axle on one side. That will help you narrow down where the problem is, so you don't end up spending more money than you have to. Sure it is a few times of taking the car up and down, but when you look at how much money you can potentially save, it is worth it in my book. The WD-40 will not be the cure-all, but it will get rid of the squeaking for a few weeks more than likely (kinda depends on how much it rains for the new couple of weeks).

If we are doing a drop kit on your car, then upgrading the sway bars will be 4 additional bolts on the rear, 4 more on the front. So, if you are looking at that, now is the time. As for other things to look into, I would say since we are that far into the car (ie, new struts/springs), you might as well change out the ball joints too. Small price to pay now to save a lot later in labor. The only other thing that I will tell you we need to do is to get an alignment done after putting on the lowering springs. I will venture to guess that things will be out to lunch and would hate to see you trash a set of tires just because we forgot about an alignment.

The only thing I will caution you on is with the drop, if you are running wider than stock tires, it is possible that you can run into a rubbing issue. So, investigate that before buying the new springs. Not saying you will, but I don't know your car super well and can't say what will work and what won't.

As for my schedule, this weekend is shot. I am making a pilgrimage up to Arlington VA to pay my respects to a friend at Arlington National Cemetary. But, after that, I think my weekends are pretty open. If you want to get an idea of where I live, look up Great Mills, MD. I am right on the edge of town.

As for getting paid for this, I operate on a simple philosophy, "Pay It Forward". I am helping you, you find someone else that needs help and help them and tell them to Pay It Forward. If you insist on paying me, I will not turn down the money, but I will not put a dollar figure on the work. I have fun working on cars and find it fun to do.

 

Sounds good, Chris. I'm going to start shopping parts, but don't think I'll be ready to head up there for at least a month. I'm thinking 6ish weeks, but maybe a bit sooner. I'll let you know/check with you once it gets closer to the the time and I have all of the parts.
In the meantime, my car is a completely stock 03 S Type-R, including the wheels. That being the case, I guess we won't have any trouble with rubbing. Do you think the H&R springs are good, or are there some others you would recommend? I'm going to hunt around for other parts--bushings, bars, shocks and struts (?)--but will gladly take any recommendations you may have.
Thanks again for the offer to help, and have a great day.

 

Mike, the H&R springs should be good. Besides, not sure of any other parts that you could use in their place. So, do some looking and ask around in the S-Type Forums. I'm sure someone there will be able to get you set up.

As for additional parts, let me look at my JTIS and see what I can get from there. But, it should be pretty straight forward. When you see things come apart, I think you are going to laugh a little bit at how easy it is and what others are charging.

Something else to keep in mind is that this would also be a good time to do your brakes as we will have all that torn apart and the time needed to do that would only add minutes to the job for all 4 wheels. Not looking to have you spend more money, but if you are thinking you are about due, this would be the time.

Get the parts you need, I will tell you what I think you may need and we'll go from there.

 

Ahmen Chris Ahmen!